Mental disorders are common in United States and internationally. In a given year, an estimated 22.1% of Americans aged 18 and older (about 1 in 5 adults) suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. According to 1998 United States Census population estimate, this figure translates to 44.3 million people! In addition, 4 of 10 leading causes of disability in U.S. and other developed countries are mental disorders, with major depression being leading cause of disability.

It is estimated that depression alone will occur in approximately 18.8 million American adults, or about 9.5% of United States population aged 18 or above. If you are a woman, you are twice as likely than a man (12% vs. 6.6%) to be affected by depression each year.

For example, if your mother fed you chicken soup when you were ill as a child, you will always associate chicken soup to being loved and cared for.

On down side, if you once contracted food poisoning from eating tainted pickles, just smell of pickles will be enough to bring on a feeling of nausea many years after event.

How does anchoring work in relationships?

If you come home from work elated by a promotion and see your lover’s face, you will link that feeling of elation to sight of his or her face. By same token, if you hate your job and constantly talk about those feelings over dinner with your spouse, you'll unconsciously begin to associate bad feelings with him or her.

In that case, you must make a conscious effort to share more good times with them so you will more readily associate positive feelings to sight of their face.

Sharing good times creates positive anchors or associations. It helps you to weather less positive times that every couple experiences at some stage in their relationship.

Breaking up is often result of linking too many negative anchors to sight of your partner’s face, with no knowledge of how to counteract them by deliberately creating positive ones.

Here’s a common example. A young doctor whose wife works to help him through medical school may decide to divorce her after he graduates. This is because he associates sight of her face to hard times they experienced during those years. Of course this is all unconscious – all he knows is that he feels bad whenever he looks at her. He mistakenly takes this as a sign that relationship isn’t working.

Now that you know how anchoring works, use it intentionally to improve your relationship.

1. Plan positive events together and make sure you don’t let any negativity intrude on event. Save arguments or disagreements for a later time.